The Changing Character of May Day in the US; Heterogeneous-Populist Movement Forms

[john_b_cannon]

I am fascinated by holidays, how they are received, and how that changes over time. I suppose my interest lies at kind of a juncture of cultural studies and something you might call political theology. I first developed this interest in El Salvador, where I lived in 1997. There, the use of a calendar of holidays both Catholic and secular, broadly

Comments

[zeltkaiserin]

I definitely agree that 2006 was a turning point, but I also think that the wave of European actions that began with the university occupations in Germany and Austria in roughly May 2008 against the Bologna process had something to do with a revival there of seizing on and reminding folks of the workers' history of what is still a big party throughout the continent.

May Day 2010 was pretty big in Los Angeles as a moment where immigrants rights folks, student protesters from Occupy CA and non-Occupy CA folks (the walkouts, the Dream Act folks, et cetera), and a lot of people pissed off about the foreclosure crisis came together. It also promised to be big enough that instead of being at MacArthur Park as it had been since 2006, it involved downtown as well and even the more staid unions were pressed to hold a rally.

SoCal being close to Phoenix in a bunch of ways also made a huge difference: SB 1070 had just been a thing and even mainstream folks were pissed at Obama by then.

that was also when I remember a lot more folks talking about Haymarket than in past years.